The Thumb

By Fabio Ballarin

Hi my name is Fabio. And I’m 11 years old. I had recently started at a new school. Up to now nothing very serious has ever happened to me, except for what I’m about to tell you.

It all started as a normal Friday morning. I came to homeroom from language arts. I got in trouble three days before because I stood on a museum exhibit. After I had done it, I felt that it was kind of a dumb thing to do, and I wished that I had thought more before I behaved the way I did.

But since I got in trouble I had to help build a new museum exhibit. While I was working I thought that making the exhibit was kind of fun, because I got to use a hacksaw. To use the hacksaw, you have to put the saw down on whatever you are cutting. Then you move your arm back and forth. You have to push down with pressure, and you have to cut straight.

After recess the exhibit was done. We made a 15’ x 10’ playbox with a 3 1/2-foot fence around it. It had foam padding for toddlers to jump around in. Tony, one of the museum staff members, let me, Julian, and Ruben jump in it. We were happy that they let us test it.

They hadn’t put in any doors yet, so to try it out we had to jump over the 3 1/2-foot fence to get inside. The second time I jumped in, I hit the padding on the top of the fence and started to roll into the box. When I landed on my side, on the floor inside the box, I started rolling on my back. I was rolling sideways, like the way you roll down a hill.

Then when I almost rolled across the whole floor of the box, Julian jumped in and landed on my thumb. When he landed my thumb it didn’t hurt at first, but about 15 seconds later my thumb really started to hurt. It felt like a sharp pain, like my thumb was just slammed in the door. It was paralyzed, and I couldn’t move it all.

After I got up I couldn’t move my thumb. It was all red so Swen wrapped it up in tape. The tape made a mini splint.

Later, when we were walking to the YMCA I took the tape off because I thought it would fall off in the pool, anyway. When I took the tape off I saw that my thumb was all blue.

My thumb felt better when I went swimming, because the water was cold. Walking back to school, my thumb was all swollen up. Julian, Ruben, and Matthew kept on squeezing my thumb. I think they were squeezing my thumb because they wanted to see how much it hurt. It hurt a lot.

We got to school. It was almost time for 6 to 6, so I packed up my stuff and went to the 6 to 6. Scott asked me if my thumb hurt. I said, "Yes, but it only hurts a little." Scott asked me this when I was playing football. I wanted to play, and I thought that my thumb felt good enough to play football.

That evening, when I got home my mom told me to put an ice pack on my thumb and watch TV. Its been about two months since the accident happened and my thumb still hurts. I think that I just sprained my thumb really bad, but it has been hard having sore thumb. I haven’t been able to ride my bike, or hold a pencil really tight. I learned that a thumb is a really important part of your body.

Moral: I learned to always watch out before you jump into stuff.